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“Abraham, Martin, and John”

Tomorrow is the 5oth anniversary of JFK’s assassination. Now I honestly don’t think all that much of JFK as either a man or a political leader, but I understand the fascination. He was the last president killed in office, the last one to die under Tecumseh’s curse (Reagan broke it, btw). He was young and charismatic, and he represented something of a changing of the guard in the White House. Kennedy was the first president who consciously seemed to court and represent younger people, and the first “television” president. He understood how to take advantage of the changes that were rising in the culture in the early 1960s. The one thing he wasn’t was a saint.

I get a little tired of people fawning over him. He wasn’t some kind of savior that was cut down before his mission had been completed. But he was at least partly responsible for wonderful things like the Peace Corps, and the space program. He probably would’ve advanced the Civil Rights movement somewhat. And I think if he’d lived, we might not have gotten bogged down in Vietnam the way we did. He did some good things; he did some dumb things. He wasn’t the same kind of president as Lincoln, and he wasn’t as principled as MLK. He was a good politician who knew what to say to win elections, and he probably had the best of intentions.

I’ll remember him today, with a song that seems a little too fawning for my taste, but accurately represents the way the American people felt at the time. Probably the way a lot of them still feel.